A great discussion of end times

I ran across a great video of 4 great Christian thinkers talking about the end times. They are respectful, but willing to disagree with each other. They are scholarly, yet accessible. They are academic, and still engaging. If you ever have an extra 2 hours… I highly recommend it.

You can find it on the front page of www.desiringgod.org. Seriously… watch it!

Matt Chandler – 2

The more I hear Matt Chandler, the more I like him. Here is an interview that I recently saw with him talking about his personal relationship with God and how he grows personally. I really like and connect with the way he talks about our affections…. and what he says about sports hits a little too close to home!

C.S.Lewis

I love CS Lewis as do many people. One of his quotes that has always stuck with me was,

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.“

As I was studying for the message that I am giving this weekend, I thought of this quote once again. I will be teaching on 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, but I think this quote fits really well with verse 17, which reads, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” As I read the verse over and over this week it started to stand out to me that our troubles are actually achieving for us the glory that awaits. They are not a hurdle to climb over, they are part of the process – a necessary part of the process. Maybe its because the troubles remind us that this world is not our home. Maybe its because they create in us a longing for something greater, something more, something that we were actually created for.

As I mulled over possible ways to illustrate that for this weekend, the best that I could come up with is a balloon. When we blow up a balloon it obviously expands. I think that is the way that hardship work in our life. They expand us. They create a greater capacity for us to receive, embrace, and embody glory – both in this life and in the next. I’m pretty sure that this is what Romans 5:3-5 is saying as well.

This isn’t one of the messages that everyone loves to hear. I think it falls under that category of “God’s ways are not our ways,” but I am convinced that it is true. I’m convinced both experientially and by the scriptures. Sometimes the things we don’t want to hear are the very things that we most need to hear.

Like a Wind

In John 3 a man comes to Jesus by cover of dark with some great questions of what it looks like and what it means to be one of his followers. One of the things that Jesus says is that a person who is His follower must be born of the Spirit. Here is the way John records the conversation, “⁵Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

I was thinking about this concept this morning… the wind blows wherever it please. I was thinking about the concept in my own life, and in the life of the ministry that I have the opportunity to lead. Is the Spirit able to do whatever it pleases in my life? Is the Spirit able to do whatever it pleases in my ministry?

I’m going through a phase right now thinking and wondering where God is challenging us to go next. Here is one of the conclusions that I have come to. Everything is on the table. There are no sacred cows. I want to be open to going where the wind/Spirit leads. I think that far too often I write off ideas because they aren’t the way that we have done things. However, I am confident that this fall God is doing some new things in our midst. So, my plan of attack is to sit back a little bit and observe. I want to discern where the wind is blowing, where the Spirit is moving (both in my own life and in the life of theWELL) and then respond to it. I think for me the first step might be expectation; having the expectation that God is moving, that his Spirit is blowing, and that we should seek with everything that we have and everything we are to follow Him.

If you are part of our community, I’d love to hear where you think the Spirit is moving and the things that he is challenging us towards. If you’re not, I’d love to hear where you feel like the Spirit is moving in your ministry.

Thoughts on sin

This morning I read an interview that Leadership Journal did with Matt Chandler (a pastor in TX who I respect a lot). He had some great thoughts about what it looks like to live a life that truly follows Jesus. Here is an excerpt from the interview that I found especially interesting (take from here):

What does warring against sin look like?

Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They’re not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn’t take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It’s not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that’s a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. After a funeral I walked around the cemetery and found a grave of a guy who died when he was my age. I felt my mortality in that moment and it made me love the Lord. It really did. Some types of epic films do that for me, and so does angst-filled music.

We want our people to think beyond simply what’s right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they’re not immoral.

What do you think this generation is looking for that has been missing in the church?

Transcendence. My generation was raised on a religion of moral control. Do this. Don’t do that. And a lot of self-help religion. Feel better. Get out of debt. Six ways to overcome your fears. Seven ways not to lust. Ultimately that message didn’t work. It was empty. There was no transcendence. The omniscient, omnipresent, all-powerful God of the universe wasn’t the focus. I think that’s why we are seeing the resurgence of Reformed theology.

Spectacular New Images From the Hubble Telescope – FOXNews.com

Spectacular New Images From the Hubble Telescope – FOXNews.com

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Changing the World

I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I love working with college student! They are so full of life, ideas, and a desire to make our world a better place. On a  friends blog I ran across this article that USA Today ran about college students who are making an impact in our world. Read the article and I assure you that you will be inspired.  I’m praying that some of the students that I work with will make as big an impact for Jesus Christ!

Here is a link to the article.

Mikey 2

I found this video on Mikey’s website. It’s a short version of his testimony. Can’t wait to hear him on Friday!

Mike Esparza from The Mikey Morning Show on ROCK 105.3 Testimony from Ryer Flaker on Vimeo.

To be happy…

I ran into a student the other day who used to come to our college group. After doing the normal greeting thing, I asked her what she was up to. She said that she had just moved in with her boyfriend. I asked her how that was working out for her and she responded, “I just had to do what I had to do to be happy.” My heart instantly broke for her.

I think that people still have this idea (and it is a fallacy) that the parameters God sets up are meant to rob us of life instead of giving us life.  Nothing could be further from the truth! It would be the equivalent of viewing the side railings on the side of a 100ft cliff as cumbersome. In John 10:10 Jesus says, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” The longer I live and the longer I serve in ministry I become more and more convinced of the validity of both of the statements that Jesus makes there.

One, that there is an enemy whose goal is to rob people of life. I think my sense of this is lately is exaggerated because I spent the last two weeks on college campuses. You can just sense the quest for life that is burning in them, and you can also see that the ways they are attempting to fulfill that desire are simply letting them down. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy – and indeed he is doing just that.

On the other hand, I have the privileged of spending time with students who are experiencing the life that is found in Christ. The cool thing about it is that they are living the way that God designed us to live AND they are having a better time doing it than people who are “doing what they have to do to be happy.”

There is life in following.

Mikey

When I first moved to California I had no idea what radio station to listen to… nobody does when they move to a new city. I heard a bunch of my friends talking about the Mikey morning show, so I decided to tune in and check it out. I really started to like the show. It’s real, it doesn’t seem forced, it’s hilarious, and it’s clean. What more could I ask for in my 5 minute commute?

I had heard that Mikey was a Christian, but I didn’t really know what that meant to him and how his faith impacted his life. As I listened to the show longer,  started to notice that Mikey’s faith really did effect the way that he looked at issues that people would call in asking about. But, the amazing thing about Mikey is that he has the ability to speak to issues (and into people’s lives), with his viewpoint as a follower of Christ out in the open, but in a way that allows him to keep the respect of his listening audience. That’s a rarity in our day and age. Every Friday he shares his testimony and it is a powerful reminder of God’s grace and redemption.

All of those things caused us to want to bring Mikey in to share with our church. So, on Friday September 11th at 7:00pm, Mikey is coming to EFCC. We are stoked to have him. Anyway, I’d encourage you to come and invite someone to come with you. It’s going to be a great (and free) evening!